Portofino is this tiny little fishing village on Italy’s Ligurian coast. It’s ridiculously pretty—colorful houses, blue water, fancy boats bobbing around. You can walk the whole place in like ten minutes, but honestly, that’s all you need. It’s just one of those places where you sit, eat some great seafood, and enjoy the view. What … Read more
Capri is one of those places that just hits different. Sure, it’s gorgeous—everyone knows that. But it’s not just about the photos. There’s something about the way the light hits the cliffs, or how the sea looks so blue it almost doesn’t seem real. People have been coming here for thousands of years—emperors, writers, rich … Read more
For some, it represents everything wrong with modern tourism—crowded, expensive, and reduced to a single photo opportunity where thousands of people daily strike the same pose, pretending to hold up a building that has been tilting for centuries. For others, Pisa is a charming Tuscan city with a rich history, a vibrant student population, and … Read more
You are walking in Alberobello, Puglia. You round the corner into Rione Monti and stop walking. Hundreds of whitewashed cone-roofed houses tumble down the hillside before you, gray stone domes clustered together like a forest of mushrooms. It looks like something from a storybook, a village where hobbits might live or where witches might brew … Read more
Civita di Bagnoregio is not like any other Italian hill town. It is called “Il paese che muore,” the dying town, because the fragile tufa rock it sits upon has been eroding for millennia. Earthquakes, landslides, and the relentless forces of nature have slowly eaten away at its foundation. The mountain is still sinking, inch … Read more
Matera is not like anywhere else in Italy. It is not even like anywhere else in the world. While Rome is three thousand years old and feels ancient, Matera has been continuously inhabited for nearly nine thousand years, making it one of the oldest cities on earth. The Sassi, the cave dwellings carved into the … Read more
Naples, or Napoli as Italians call it. It’s loud, chaotic, gloriously messy, and absolutely unforgettable. For years, travelers treated it as nothing more than a pit stop on the way to the Amalfi Coast or Capri, a place to catch a train and move on. But something has shifted. Naples is having a moment, and … Read more
Puglia stretches between the Adriatic Sea to the east and the Ionian Sea to the west. It offers over 500 miles of coastline that rivals any in the Mediterranean for sheer beauty. But its allure goes far beyond its beaches. Here, whitewashed hilltop towns gleam under the southern sun, ancient olive groves stretch to the … Read more
Italy’s cities—Rome, Florence, Venice—are justly famous. They’re the heavyweights, the places you feel you must see at least once. But here’s a secret I’ve learned from years of exploring this magnificent country: the soul of Italy doesn’t reside in its bustling piazzas. It lives in the borghi, the small villages that cling to hillsides, nestle in valleys, and … Read more
Let me start with a confession. Ranking the most beautiful places in Italy is a fool’s errand. I’ve been traveling to this magnificent country for many years, and every time I think I’ve seen the best it has to offer, a new corner reveals itself and leaves me speechless. Italy is a country that doesn’t … Read more